Youth Ham Radio Insights: Activating a Summit in Italy

This past November, my host family in Germany and I took a trip to Italy during the fall break from school. With two other amateur radio operators in my host family, it’s no surprise the trip had some fairly significant ham radio-focused aspects to it.

One of my favorites was the SOTA (Summits on the Air) activation my host dad and I did together. I was (and am) still new to SOTA. My first time doing an activation was at YOTA camp in Denver, Colorado, in the summer of 2025. I really enjoyed the experience, so my host dad and I decided to activate one of the summits close to where we stayed for the week in northern Italy’s Trento province—7,323-foot Cima Palon (I/TN-305).

After a quick look at Google Maps, which noted that it was only about a ten-minute climb, we determined the hike would definitely be worth it. Before the trip, we tested the setup and made sure it would perform well during the activation. We took the equipment to the playground at the end of our street, set it up, tested our SWR and a few other things, made some contacts, and determined that it was ready to go.

The day of the activation, we made sure to spot ourselves on the SOTA cluster and got our gear packed for the (short) climb. We took my Icom IC-705 transceiver and SOTAbeams portable dipole, as well as a mast and battery from my host dad’s shack and a lightweight portable key. This was a rather important part of the setup since the activation was only CW!

After about an hour and 15 minutes of wandering up the grassy mountainside, we could finally see the top. It was still relatively warm for November, so there wasn’t much snow, but it was nonetheless quite a beautiful (and slightly relieving) sight to see. Fifteen minutes later, we were at the top of the mountain. We put up the mast and antenna, unpacked and set up the radio, and connected everything so that we were ready to operate.

The view from the top was incredible but not better than the pileup I had after my second “CQ.”

I operated for about 30 minutes and made approximately 50 contacts—plenty more than enough to call it a successful activation—before we started to tear everything down.

While we were packing up, we ran into another hiker who had a few questions about what exactly we were doing with “the wire and the pole,” which provided some entertainment as well. After we were finished packing up, it was time to head back down before it got too dark. The mountain felt slightly steeper and definitely rockier than it did when we went up, but in the end, it only took about 45 minutes to get back down.

Afterward, we went to grab dinner as a family and share some pictures of the amazing views that we got from the top.

With another SOTA operation under my belt, there are a few things I learned from the experience.

First, it’s important to do more research than just Google Maps when it comes to the hike itself. The actual hiking part of the process aside, my best advice to anyone looking to do SOTA activations is to find equipment you’re comfortable using but that is also lightweight.

And be sure to always test the equipment beforehand. We found some issues during our test run, and I was glad we had taken the time to set up everything and make sure it worked smoothly.

Most importantly, take lots of pictures along the way and enjoy the whole experience, even if there are some logistical curveballs thrown your way.

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